A State Funeral of Sorts. Alfred, 2nd Prince of Montenuovo, Franz Josephs Chamberlain, hated Franz Ferdinand and Sophie with a passion and with the emperors connivance, decided to turn the funeral into a massive and vicious snub. Alfred a die hard royalist knew of Franz Ferdinands plans for local government and autonomous rule for the regions of the empire and swore he would die before this would happen. Ironically by not embracing change and following his new old Emperor he would see the total destruction of a centuries old monarchy in four years. The bodies were transported to Trieste by the battleship SMS Viribus Unitis and then to Vienna by special train. Even though most foreign royalty had planned to attend, they were pointedly disinvited and the funeral was just the immediate imperial family, with the dead couples three children excluded from the few public ceremonies. The officer corps was forbidden to salute the funeral train, and this led to a minor revolt led by Archduke Karl, the new heir to the throne. The public viewing of the coffins was curtailed severely and even more scandalously, Montenuovo tried unsuccessfully to make the children foot the bill. There was a funeral procession of sorts from Sarajevo all the way to the castle where the Archduke lies today, and a period in which the body lay in state, in the Hofburgs Royal Chapel, (Vienna) on July 2nd 1914, from 8am until noon. Kaiser Willhelm II wished to use the funeral as an informal peace conference and thus prevent the inevitable disaster. This plan was foiled, and a last chance at peace was wasted The Archduke and his wife were interred at the Castle of Artstetten his wife could not be buried at the Imperial Crypt. at around 2am on July 4th, 1914.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 08:04:18 +0000
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